Compare Prices on Carnival Triumph Western Caribbean Cruises

Carnival triumph June 18 to 23 2012.

So this is my first ever attempt at a review. Please ask any questions you have and I will try to answer them.

So this was our 4th cruise.. We were on the triumph to Progresso and Cozumel from June 18 to 23, 2012. There was four people all together, me and my husband and our 11 year old son and 6 month old son. We started out by packing almost the entire house, for the baby. We seriously had 7 checked bags and we carried on 3 bags ( diaper bag, extra baby food bag and personal items bag) and two strollers.

I know this may sound extreme but it was our first time cruising with an infant and wanted to make sure he had anything he could possibly need or want.

So we stated out by leaving our house in northwest Houston on Sunday morning and driving to Galveston with no hotel reservations or anything. We were so anxious to go we just wanted to be there. So we head straight to the port when we get to More
Galveston because we knew the magic was suppose to be in port and I wanted Starbucks, and I knew there was one right by port. So we see the magic as we are driving by, and we pull into the Starbucks and park. We get our drinks and sit out on the patio and watch everyone at the port, basically just people pulling and carrying luggage across the street. We are huge people watchers. While we are sitting there my husband says I wish there was a hotel right around here, and I am like babe there is its called harbor house and I pointed across the street. He's like let's check the price. So I jump online on my phone and pull it up..$169 a night. We finally agree that's thats ok, since it's about $100 bucks more than we originally planned on spending, since rooms were going for $69 on the sea wall. We walk over to the harbor house and go in and speak with this very friendly older lady. She gives us the room for $149 because we have AAA. There is also a $10 fee for parking, so we paid like $185 for the night. Not to bad since we were directly beside the port. Unfortunately our room wasn't available yet, so we went and moved the truck from starbucks parking lot to the hotel parking lot. We grabbed the stroller and diaper bag and went to explore the strand area. We stopped at this one little "souvenir shop" and bought our first drinks of vacation. My husband had a bud lite platinum and I had a smirinoff screwdriver (very awesome by the way). We head back over to the hotel after having lunch at some little cafe on the strand. It was ok, but I can't remember the name of it because I am a very light drinker and was already buzzing with just one drink.

Our room was ready by that time and we got up to it. They even put a baby bed in the room for us, without us requesting it. :) We had a very nice view of the magic. We then decide to lay down for a couple of minutes and relax and let the baby sleep. The baby sleeps for about an hour and a half and me, my husband and our 11 year old just hang out watching tv. around 4 ish, the magic takes off and we watch her leave from our room. Awesome view! While we were out exploring Galveston we had went ahead and made reservations ( it was fathers day) at the fishermans wharf, this restaurant is in between the port and the hotel.

We get ready for dinner and head over, we ordered the butterfly kisses for an appetizer, they were amazing! Me and my husband shared a crab and shrimp fondue for dinner and my son had a cheeseburger. The fondue was really good, they didn't give you enough bread to dip in it though. After that we head back to the room because baby is fussy and wants to lay and play. :) he's so awesome. We spend a quiet and early night in. We are normally night people (my husband works nights 5 pm to 5 am) but we wanted to see the triumph come in so we called it and early night and went to bed.

The next morning we get up and watch the triumph come in. We then have a small breakfast at the hotel ( very crappy actually) and decide we are gonna hit up Starbucks again so we go ahead and check out of the hotel, it's like 8 am ( can you tell we were excited) we hit up Starbucks and my 11 year old and husband are starving since all they had was a carb filled breakfast ( think Danishes and muffins) at the hotels. We decide to head to Denny's or I hop on the sea wall to have breakfast. We are driving along and I decide to stop at cvs and get more diapers ( just had that mom feeling and you can never be to prepared). So we grab diapers and we decide that since its going to take at least an hour to get breakfast at I hop, that we would pass on that and hit up a very nutrious breakfast at mcdonalds ( sarcasm) we grab some mcdonalds on the seawall and eat inside.

We leave and head back to port, it's around 915 am. We drive through the port, just to see if we can drop off luggage... We see a couple porters but they look like they are a little busy. So we drive over to Galveston park and cruise to scope out our parking. The gentleman says we can start parking whenever we like, but we still had our bags so we said not yet. I am so excited by this time I tell my husband lets head back over and see if the porters are out ( it's like 930 am), so he rolls his eyes and says ok baby. We head back to port. We start driving thru and this porter flags us down and says... Are you dropping off luggage? We are like omg yes, but we thought it was too early. He's like I saw you drive thru a minute ago, but didn't know what you were doing. So me and my husband jump out and start helping him unload our bags. He is very nice and reminds me several times that I need to make sure I have my important documents and they are not in my bag. I assure him I have them. I then realize I have no small bills and I tell him that after we park I will bring him back a tip. He kinda rolls his eyes like yea right, but is very nice to us. We park and walk back to the Starbucks and get some change. W walk over to port, like a 5 minute walk, tip the porter and head inside. It's like 945am. A very nice security guard tells us we can have a seat and she will let us know when they are ready to issue us our sign and sail cards. She then walks over to us and we start talking about the baby and how old he is and everything like that. After about 5 minutes he walking talkie goes off, and she says they are ready for you. So we were the first ones in port and now we were heading to get our sign and sail cards way early than we expected. So we go thru security, talking and laughing with everyone. Everyone loved our kids. They did open our soda cases and check to make sure we were not smuggling anything. Once we get thru to security we head up to the desk. A couple of minutes later we have our cards in hand. We are handed a zone card and told we have to wait about 30 mins. More people start arriving about 10 minutes later. The baby is laughing and talking and my 11 year old is having a blast with him. Around 1030am they call for wedding parties and VIPs to begin boarding. Shortly after everyone else is told we can board. We head on ship, after having our picture taken. We are one of the first groups on lido and find an awesome table by the window. We order a DOD and head off in search of food and a high chair with me and the baby still at the table.

We find some food, chili dogs and fries and a burger for my husband and ice cream, then a burger for my 11 year old, then pizza. I order a Reuben with no sauerkraut. I also grab some fries. The food on ship is ok, nothing that I was like OMG about. I did take a few food pictures. The past ships I have been on had better food than the triumph. So after we eat, we set off to find our room, it's not far away at all because we have a balcony on the lido, cabin 9290. So we go to the room, it's too early we know but we mainly just want to see the location and see if we can peek our head in. :) so my husband and kids hang out beside the door going to the rooms while I run to see if I can see the room, doors open, no ones around...I stick my head in and glance and around. Looks good! I head out and tell my husband to go peek at it. He goes to peek at it while I hang with the kids. He comes back to the door leading to the rooms and is like babe come on...and waves me thru the door, he says our steward says we can put a couple things in the closet so we don't have to carry it all around. I am like cool, and head to put a bag or two in the closet, this is when I first meet one of the room stewards. Her name is prei, she is from Indonesia and she is amazing. She raves over the baby and tells us to let her know if we need or want anything. We promise her we will and head off to explore. We explore the ship, taking pictures and looking around. W even get to check out our next cabin for our august cruise. By this time it is 130 ish and babies fussy, so we head to the room and everything is done so we head in. The baby bed is not set up yet, because we agreed that she would put it up in the afternoon. We lay babies in the king size bed and he goes to sleep. Me and my husband head out to the balcony for him to smoke and just to check it out. My 11 year old heads off to get more food. :) me and my husband stand on the balcony watching all the workers on the forklifts with the containers full of suitcases trying to pick out our luggage. We couldn't find it :(. After about an hour the main room steward knocks on the door and introduces hisself. We introduce ourselves and he asks about the baby bed and if my son wants the couch made into a bed or the trundle. My son decides on the trundle. He says he will bring in the baby bed and put the trundle down later that afternoon. He confirms we have late dining.

We are anxious to get back out and explore more, so we wake up the sleeping babes and put him in his big stroller so he can go back to sleep. We head down and find our dining room, and just explore more. We made it back to the room, right as they were announcing muster, so we head down to deck 4 for muster. Muster was way crowded and way hot, we carried the baby so we didn't have to try to take an elevator. After muster we head back toward the room to watch sail away from our balcony. This is the first time I realize just how out of shape I am. I have a sleeping 16 lb 8 oz baby, that I am carrying and I have to climb ALL the stairs from the 4 floor to the 9 th floor. It was very hard. My husband offered to carry him, but I declined for two reasons....one my husband has a bulging disk in his back and his sciatic nerve is messing up, and second... W would have gotten trampled if we would have stopped to switch the baby from person to person.

We make it back to the room, just as we are getting unhooked from the dock. We are looking over the side and there are so many people on their balconies watching. This was my first balcony and I never realized how many people watched sail away from their balcony. Once we are away and setting sail we sit in our chairs on the balcony, drink in hand and just relax. We are starting to wonder where our luggage is, since we need to change clothes from being so sweaty. Our luggage arrives about 5 pm. Babes is playing on the bed surrounded by pillows, we have the balcony door open ( bungees are awesome) watching the ocean. Our 11 year old is headed off to see what he can find at the kids programs. I tell him to go to the older kids program ( he thinks camp carnival is babyish) and see if they will let him in. About this time, we hear an announcement that says we are having to turn around and head back to galveston because of a medical emergency. The captain also says we will still make all ports on time. He says they have to close all the shops and change the drink menu. We stand upon the balcony and we arrive back in Galveston about 45 minutes later. W dock at a pier that is really close to the hospital and an ambulance and fire truck show up. They wheel an elderly lady off, that looks like she may have had a heart attack. Her daughter gets off with her, and the ship starts to pull up the ramps and untie when the fireman and police start yelling that the daughter is getting back on ship. She rushes back on and we take off again. W pick up speed because I feel the ship rocking.

We decide it's time for a shower, we get all showered and by this time it's almost 7 pm. W have decided that since the older kids program let my son in and they have an activity at 8 pm that he doesn't have to join us for dinner tonight, but would like to have him there every other night.

About 730, possibly 745 pm we head out to dinner. We get to the dining room, and we have the baby in his small stroller, because we did not know how how crowded it was going to be. They open the doors and the crowd heads in. W are taken to our table. Unfortunately it is only a 4 person table ( we LOVE table mates), we are a little bummed, but decide we are going to try and get our table switched. The maitre d comes by and we ask him, he says no problem and he will come back with another table for us tomorrow. We don't see him again. :( as I mentioned before food on the triumph is not really good, so I don't remember what was being served. The service was wonderful.

Babes starts being fussy, so we finish up really quick and head out before the waiters even get to entertain. We didn't even get to stop by the maitre d stand and see if he changed our table.

We arrive back in the room, beds are turned down, we have a towel animal, baby bed is set up. We take lots of pictures with the baby and the towel animal. We lay the babies down and he falls straight to sleep. He had only taken an hour nap all day and we had been up since early. I would say it's like 930 or 10pm.

My 11 year old shows up about this time, saying he is exhausted and is going to bed. We kiss him goodnight, and he climbs in the trundle and falls asleep very quickly. Me and my husband close the curtains to keep it dark in the room for the kids. W head back out to the balcony to chill some more. We became official members of the balcony club that night :)

Day 2- at sea

So we put the room service breakfast card on the door the night before, to be delivered between 550 and 6 am, so we could sit on the balcony and watch the sun come up. So we are sound asleep, they knock. My husband answers the door tips them, gets the food and brings it in. He wakes us all up to eat. W are all really grumpy. I eat a banana, sitting on the balcony watching the sun come up. I have the worst headache and I am just grumpy. My son and husband have chocolate milk, cereal and bananas. We are all at each others throats by the time the sun is up, and all agree ( non verbally) that we are going back to bed for a little while. We all fall asleep, and wake up around 930 or 10, feeling much better. We are bummed because we missed some early morning on ship, but definitely not grumpy. We get babies ready and head out to lido. We have some breakfast, eggs and ham, some omelettes. Me and my husband also get a mimosa to share, since I am a light weight drinker. My husband and son also both get orange juice which triggers a switch in my brain about something I read on cruise critic, so I run up to the bar and order a shot of vodka. I make my husband an orange creamsicle. Basically it's, vanilla ice cream, orange juice and vodka mixed until creamy. I also made my 11 year old a virgin one. They loved them. We then head out toward the pool, the weather is kinda crappy, it's not raining but it looks like its gonna. We decide the music is a little loud for the babies, so we head back indoors. We go thru the buffet to the back pool by the pizza bar. It's quiet there, no music or anything. We hang out in the chairs, just people watching and talking.

After that we just kinda hang out, sometimes in the room, sometimes eating, playing With the babes. My 11 year old leaves around 11 to head to the kids area. Most everything for him starts at noon, but he was going to play basketball with some other kids first. Me and my husband decide to go to the mdr for lunch. W check with the assistant maitre d and see if our table for dinner has been changed, it hasnt, so he changes it for us. W go and have lunch and meet our 11 year old in the room around 3ish. He is in the room, he has ordered room service and is watching tv eating a pb and j with chocolate milk. :)

At 5 we go for sushi, and hang out near the casino eating sushi and people watching. We meet our 11 year old in the buffet around 6 to 630 for pizza. After that we wak around ship, trying to walk off the pizza. We go and dress for formal night, and head to the mdr for our dinner, we go to our new table and have dinner with our new table mates. They are interesting and we talk a lot. They leave before dessert, saying they are taking their kid to her kids thing. Our 11 year old takes off to do his thing. After we have dessert, we head out to walk some more, then go to the room and put babies in bed. He is out. Around midnight, our 11 year old comes in and wants food, because he has had a formal dance and done all sorts of fun things. They played trivia games, video games, and hung out. He even tells us that a counselor from the last ship we were on is now on this ship and even recognized him. He was very excited. He orders room service and eats and goes to bed. While they are both asleep, me and my husband head to the casino, we are down there like 30 minutes and I tell my husband I can't stay any longer because the baby is asleep and what if he starts crying. So we head back to the room. We are in bed by like 2am.

W felt the ship moving lots, I think because the ship is moving pretty fast trying to make up for lost time, since we had to go back to Galveston. It's rocking pretty steady and every time I eat I feel very nauseous. The weather is also pretty cloudy and I think it's sprinkled some.

My 11 year old really enjoyed doing his own thing, and going by the kids schedule and picking and choosing his activities for the day. Our room stewards would clean our room every morning right after we left, saying that they didn't know when the baby would want to go back to sleep, and wanted him to be comfortable. As I said before they were awesome.

Day 3- progresso

We wake up and we are ported in progresso, unfortunately we slept thru us getting there. We have already decided, way before we left home that we were staying on ship in progresso. So we get up, head to breakfast and go to hang out by the back pool, it's quieter there. We play with the babies. Our 11 year old actually hangs with us for a while. We are people watching and talking to our son about girls. He just started liking girls so we are asking him questions about girls and stuff. He is so funny. After a little while the baby is tired so we head to lay him down. We hang out on the balcony while the baby is asleep. We are watching everyone coming back and forth on the ship. Around lunch my husband heads to the lido... Grab some food for us both and head back to the balcony. I had read on cc that watching pier runners is pretty funny. So as it gets time for everyone to be on ship, we are noticing lots of people on the balconies watching. There are lots of people just slowing taking their time, getting back to ship. One guy is so drunk he moons the entire side of the ship several times. About 6 people are very late because I guess their bus did not arrive on time to get them back to ship. It's like 5 minutes before we are suppose to take off when the bus drops these people off. They slowly meander down the pier nd board ship, with lots of applause and people yelling run. W take off and head toward Cozumel.

We spend a pretty quiet evening in the room. We decide on buffet for dinner, since I am nauseous and the baby is being fussy. After we eat, we head back to the room the baby goes to sleep and we just hang out.

The ship is also rocking pretty good today. The weather is very cloudy and sprinkling. W did get to hang by the lido pool for like 10 minutes. Our 6 month old has gotten diarrhea and a severe case of diaper rash. This is only because he was use to bottled water, but we had been giving him ship water, and he didn't agree with it. We are loving just hanging out and doing nothing. As we sit on the balcony tonight there is n awesome lightening storm. We are suppose to go to nachi cocom tomorrow in Cozumel and are wondering if we are going to get to, because of the weather.

Day 4- Cozumel Mexico

We wake up to it pouring outside. :( we had already prep landed to go to nachi cocom, but as our luck goes when we plan something...something always happens. Since we have a 6 month old, we decide that we are not going to head to nachi cocom because of the weather. We are really bummed, but decide its in our best interest. The kids are both sleeping so we take off to lido.. Grab a little breakfast and bring back to the room. W are sitting on the balcony, it's pouring.. We decide that we really want to at least grab some alcohol from Cozumel. We wake up our 11 year old and ask him to wake the baby while we run into Cozumel. He agrees, and has his cell.. I have my cell, my husband hs his cell.. We have international calling on them so we are good. The baby is still sleeping and we take off.. Literally running... W get off ship, take a couple quick pics... Run into the town... We are soaked. We buy a couple bottles of alcohol, some tshirts and a dress, and two drinks from fat Tuesday, we are back on ship in 30 minutes... I timed us. We board ship with everything and head straight to the room, they didn't say we had to check anything. :) we get back to the room, and the baby is still sleeping, thank god! By this time I am wasted, the running... And fat Tuesday's drink has done me in... ( I drank like 5 drinks of the drink) we decide I need food, or I am going to be sicker than I already am. ( I had gastric bypass in 2010 and have a very low tolerance to alcohol.) we wake the baby... And all head to the buffet. It's like 10 am, my husband has finished mine and his drink... We have a very fussy baby because of his diaper rash, so we head back to the room, feeling terrible. Baby falls asleep, and me and my husband do the same. Our 11 year old goes to play a ping pong tournament and some basketball. We wake up after we have already left port. About 30 minutes after we all wake up, my 11 year old comes into the room... And out of the blue says... Mom, dad I want to watch the baby this afternoon. We are like shocked but finally agree. My husband asks me what I want to do...I am like... Massage... So we call down and they have an opening!! W get a couples Swedish massage, it's amazing! We purchase all the spa stuff also. After the massage we go back to the room, and find our 11 year old laying on the bed, the baby laying on his chest fast asleep. It it the most precious sight! W eat at the buffet today, because my husband has ran out of shirts that he can wear to the dining, he has lots of sleeveless, but not with sleeves. We go back to the room and just chill...

Day 5- at sea

We slept in late, got up had some breakfast. My 11 year old took off for the kids camps. Me and my husband decide to take the baby and head out to the lido. We find a shady spot and chill for an hour or so. We basically let the baby decide our day. We spend a lot of time walking around, in the room and on our balcony. We pack up our bags and leave them outside the room in the afternoon around 9 pm. By 11 pm they are gone. We find our stewards this afternoon and thank them, and give them hugs. They are awesome! We prefer room service and sit on the balcony wishing our trip was not over.

Debarkation day :(

We wake up to a wake up call around 7 am. We get everyone ready and are heading out the door around 8 am, when they start announcing the debarkation procedures. We are zone 20, so we have until about 950 am until we can get off ship. We head to the MDR and get some breakfast. I got the eggs Benedict. I tried to get a banana but they didn't have any. Ass we finish up breakfast we head out to the main lounges on the lobby floor, about 20 minutes later we are called to debarkation. We meander thru the line, get off ship, grab our luggage and go thru customs.... They ask if we have alcohol and cigarettes, we say yes, he asks how many... W tell him. He checks our documents and away we go. My husband walk across-the street grabs the truck and we are leaving port by 1030 am, making a quick stop at Starbucks. W are home by 1130 or 12.

Some quick things I forgot to mention:

On the Cozumel night and the sea day night, we went to the main bar, I think it's on the lobby floor or the one below it. They had a band ( I think he was a band, maybe a one man band) he sang very awesome old country one night. The other night DJ goa was there. He played some good music. We sat in the back, and just people watched and listened to music.

Always try whatever style diet cake they have, every night, they are awesome!

If you can't have sugar, or a lot of it, avoid the speciality coffe shop... It smells so good walking by.

Baby must haves

If your baby is not use to regular water, take his water... I didn't do this... He got diaper rash and diarrhea.

Small toys

Baby meds- I only gave him Tylenol one night, this is because his diaper rash was very painful and I wanted to try to help relieve it.

Diaper rash ointment and powder- we had to buy a small container of powder in
The gift shop for 5 bucks, it was travel size. His diaper rash ointment didn't help but at least I had it.

Strollers, hat, sunglasses.

His blankets he sleeps with every night.

Plenty of baby formula and water he eats. They do. It sell this on ship

Diapers, wipes. We brought two packages, plus extras thrown in all suitcases. It came in handy considering he pooped about once an hour or so.

This is mainly all I can think of that I really used. If your not idling for a while, watch your baby and see what his special toys are are be sure and bring those. I would say take anything he plays with or uses daily. It will make his transition much better. You may have 7 checked bags ( we did) but baby is worth it. Less